Memories of the Light
by dib07
Summary: Based on a doujin of the same name, Yami goes through hell and beyond to destroy a dark evil. When Yugi taps into his realm when he solves the millennium puzzle, will Yami be grateful or murderous? Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh.


Yugioh doujinshi Tales

Hikarinokioku (Memories of the Light)

By PRANK

**Written by Dib07**

**Yami X Yugi**

**Dib07: **This story is based on a doujinshi I used to read when I was younger. The tale was so lovely and heart-warming that I just had to write it in story form. Enjoy!

xxx xxx

I, Atem, the last Pharaoh of a dying Egypt, clutched the millennium puzzle close to my ring plate and watched helplessly as the High Priest Zorc Necrophades towered high above like a black god with jurisdiction over all. Time was his. Power was his: and he was able to enact either at will.

As Zorc threw up a clawed hand to pitch out more winged demons to further blacken my ruined kingdom, I felt the incorruptible power of his millennium power respond to my swelling anger and desperation. It glowed hot and bright molten yellow as if it was burning in my hands.

"Zorc!" I cried up at the High Priest, "I will seal you into the darkness from which you came, with this!"

The creature stared down at me, half his mask choked in shadow, "Is that your challenge, then? You do not hold such sway over me."

"I do, and I can!"

"Would you die to protect what is already ruined?"

_Yes, I must._

The puzzle cracked and fell to pieces – never had I done such a thing before, and I scarcely knew what I had done. My body lay, dead while my soul was thrown into the darkness of my very own millennium item in a fraught attempt to destroy Zorc Necrophades: Keeper of Time and Black Magic.

I floated in such blackness. It was a pouring, infinite well of thick silence that offered no release. Was I in hell? Was I in heaven?

Pain followed me – or rather, the memory of what my body suffered last – and that was to my only companion in a universe of unanswerable dark.

This place had no time. Only eternity.

There was nothing left to be.

xxx

Yugi sat at his desk, his body sore with bruising from his recent tormenter at school. The only thing that he loved to do more than anything else was to get home, sit at his desk and connect the pieces of this little gold pyramid even though it hadn't taken him years. It made him feel better, despite the cold realities of life.

And tonight he had surprised himself. It was almost as if his resentment and sorrow at being so mistreated by his other classmates helped him find the right pieces, for the puzzle was almost complete. Suddenly each golden part of the pyramid made sense, and he knew where to place it.

Finally he held the puzzle up in his warm hands. There was one last piece to slot in, and that was the Egyptian eye. It felt strange to be so close to completion.

He picked up the eye and slotted it in place.

xxx

Deep within the bowels of the puzzle, I awoke, but it was not relief I felt. Only fury. Power that was both new and ancient filled my shadow, giving my reawakened integrity – life – if only for a spirit. So I came into being, cold, crazed and naked. I took possession of the fool who had been chosen by the puzzle of my tomb, and hated the life I was thrown into as much as I hated my darkness. I did not care for the clothes, the home he lived in. And I went after the wicked – particularly the boy's enemies. I had no fear, nothing holding me back, and I challenged them to shadow games – for such power could I wield! I wanted them to suffer when they lost – suffer like I had. And my power seemed to grow stronger.

They wept before the golden wadjet beaming from my forehead, and such tortures did I give them. I very soon became exulted with pleasure at taking, and replacing it with madness.

Madness begets madness.

It beats against my skull. Because I have nothing else.

xxx

Yugi woke in his soul room. He came here to dream and play; it was where nothing could hurt him, and where he could be surrounded by the joy that was his. But this time his door opened out into a slim grey corridor that had not been there before.

Leaving his toys on the floor, he walked into the corridor to see with shock that there was another door opposite his. But it didn't look welcoming. In the top centre was a dark, Egyptian eye like that of his millennium puzzle and veins seemed to crawl all over the surface of the door from the eye.

He gazed back at his own room, wondering why nothing else had changed.

"That's weird." He said.

Curious, he tried the handle to find that the door opened easily upon his command. But within was cold darkness.

"I didn't make this, did I?" He asked himself, "I wonder..." _I really don't like how dark it is in there though..._

A ghostly white hand suddenly snapped forwards from the abysmal blackness and grabbed the front of Yugi's pullover, throwing him inside. Yugi hit the hard ground, but he had time to see his attacker. Standing just inside the doorway was a person who looked just like him, but older. One hand was holding his forehead as if he had a migraine and his teeth was set tightly together in a belligerent snarl. But when the stranger took a second look at who he had thrown in, his hand lifted slightly from his forehead and uncertainty marred his aggression.

"That hurt..." Yugi moaned, rubbing his backside. As the stranger approached, he looked up with a jerk. "I didn't know you lived in here." He said. "I've felt different ever since I solved the millennium puzzle, and I suppose you must be a part of it." He tottered upright and held out a hand towards the on looking stranger. "Where are my manners? Hello, my name is Yugi! What's yours?"

The stranger just stared back, his hand dropping down to his chest. He did not proceed to shake Yugi's offered hand. If anything, Yugi's question seemed to only make him more confused.

A little embarrassed but not defeated, Yugi withdrew his hand and looked at the stranger fondly. "It is you, isn't it? The one from the puzzle? My Grampa always said it was magical. Thanks to you my life has been a whole lot better. I don't know how you've done it, but I don't get bullied anymore. So, you live here all by yourself?"

"What?" Yami's perplexity was thinning into baleful slyness. Yugi had not noticed the darkness brooding in the stranger's eyes.

"It's great!" Yugi was saying, gesturing up and down with his hands. "I have someone to play with now! We can keep each other company!"

At the mention of 'playing,' the stranger offered a board game from the dark. "This is senet." He said, his voice cold and bitter. His eyes narrowed and a thin smile spread across his fangs. "I've seen you try to play it before, but I'll show you how it's meant to be played."

"Wow," exclaimed Yugi as the stranger placed the game down on the hard, stone floor. Both of them kneeled down at either end to begin. "I've never seen a real senet game before. It's one of the oldest games around!"

"We each have four pawns. I'll be the black and you can be the white pieces. We also each have four sticks. One side of them is blank, the other is gold. The sticks are thrown to act like a dice and the number of sticks facing gold or blank side up tells you how many spaces you can move. If it's the blank side you can only move one space. If it's the gold, you can move 6 spaces."

"Okay."

"You can't land on one of your own pieces. If you land on the other player's piece, you can switch with them, however you can't switch if they have two or more pieces in a row. The first player to get all of their pieces off the board wins the game. You go first."

Yugi threw his sticks. All of them landed blank-side up. Unperturbed, he took a piece and moved it three spaces. "There!" He said with glee.

The stranger sat back with a smile on his face. "You could have got three of your pawns on the board at once with that toss. Remember you have to get _all_ your pieces off the board, not just one."

"Oh! You should have told me that before I moved!" Yugi cried.

Still smiling, the strange tossed his sticks and got a 4. He put two pawns on his side of the board. Yugi tried again on his turn, and again only got a 2.

The stranger got 4 again. While Yugi's was still at the start, the stranger's pawns were almost half way.

The stranger's smile lurched into a malicious grin of sick intent while Yugi, ignorant of the spirit's plan, tossed his sticks. The stranger didn't know what he'd do to the boy once he won, but it would prove amusing all the same. Just to tear the boy up and tarnish his innocence would be good enough.

Yugi leaned back a little and scratched the back of his head. "You're too good at this! You must have had lots of practise throwing sticks!" His laughter was warm and cordial. It was a strange sound in the darkness of the spirit's ugly tomb. "I have to say that I am really enjoying myself though! I like being with you!"

The stranger's back straightened and his sinister contempt shattered, his face dropping.

"I may not be a good gamer like you," Yugi continued, winking at him, "but I'd love to practise this with you every day. I've never had so much fun with a friend."

"Friend..." He struggled to understand the small juvenile. He considered him to be a friend? Why?

He put a hand to his chest and remembered once long ago that he used to have something that beat there. Why then was his chest hurting when he was nothing but a spirit?

Why was this child making him hurt inside with these strange emotions?

But not all of them were bad.

Meanwhile, Yugi had forgotten the game. He was talking about the world beyond the walls of the puzzle. "It's a shame I can only see you down here. Can you come out some time? I'd hate to think of you being down here alone. We can play other games, and we'll always be together..."

The stranger suddenly stood up straight. Yugi looked up to see tears falling copiously from his bright red eyes.

Yugi, horrified, stood up too, and quickly approached him. The stranger was looking down at his hand, and he was back to cradling his forehead with the other as thick tears ran down his pale cheeks.

"What's wrong?" Yugi cried, terrified that he had upset him somehow. "Are you alright? Did I do something wrong? Please tell me!"

The stranger cupped Yugi's cheeks in his hands as the tears poured. Yugi blinked up at him in confusion. And worry.

Closing his eyes, the spirit rested his forehead against Yugi's.

'_You've given me a memory – a memory of the light I used to know. Of the warmth you carry, you have given me that warmth. You are my worthy successor of whatever it is that you have been chosen for. No more shall I chase my adversaries into the dark. I give my power unto you.'_

Though Yugi did not know it, his forehead was glowing with the gold third eye.


End file.
